Entertainment

Experience and polish will meld with youthful exuberance and raw talent when veteran rockers Top Dead Centre and modern hard rock band Rough Justice share the stage later this month.

The show came about by chance after bass player Rod Albon of Brantford posted a Facebook message read by music promoter and entertainer Joan Minnery, whose son, Billy, is the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist for Rough Justice.

"(Rod) contacted me on Facebook to ask about doing a show with Rough Justice and to say that he had been following Billy's career," said Minnery, who also acts as Rough Justice's manager and "band mom."

They settled on the March 27 show after a few other dates were kicked around, and the stage was set for Generation Landslide, featuring the five seasoned musicians, who are all in either their late 30s or early 40s, and the upstarts, who are in their teens.

"It's all good," said Albon, when asked about how it was decided which band would be the headliner. "We're coming into this with no egos. Everybody's out to make music and have a good time. It doesn't matter to us if we play first or second. They asked us to headline."

Rough Justice features Minnery and bassist Nick Bourget, who are both 17 and in Grade 12 at St. John's College, and 19-year-old Mohawk College student Brad Bridges, who plays drums and shares lead vocals with Billy.

"It's not new to us to play with older bands," said Billy. "(Top Dead Centre) is more well-known. It helps us because they have a big following and we get to play in front of people from their shows."

The networking has paid dividends already, according to Joan Minnery. Top Dead Centre needed an opening act for a gig in Hamilton on Saturday night and called to see whether Rough Justice was available.

"Unfortunately, the boys had plans already," she said.

Bridges said the band was "taken aback" by Top Dead Centre's interest in their professional progress.

"These guys are true professionals," said Bridges. "It's a huge confidence booster. They are the best of the best in this area."

The young trio is more than happy to open for the more experienced Top Dead Centre, despite Albon's offer of allowing them to be the headliners, he said.

"It would have felt awkward," said Bridges.

Albon teamed up with lead guitarist Jim McLean, who has a music studio and does sound engineering, and vocalist David Russ, both of Dundas, drummer Wally Z of Paris and rhythm guitarist Dan Araquel of Hamilton a few short years ago. Since then, things have moved quickly for Top Dead Centre.

They released Far From Nowhere, their first CD last summer and are working on a second release, which Albon said "we think is way better."

Far From Nowhere garnered a Hamilton Music Awards nomination for Best Loud/Metal Recording of the Year in 2009.

"There seems to be a chemistry with the five guys," Albon said about the band's early success. "We've been on the same page from Day 1. We've jelled socially and musically, which is great. When you're in a band it's a little like being married times five."

Their accomplishments are even more remarkable when you consider band members all have other jobs. In fact, Albon and Wally Z both work at Toyota in Cambridge, but met for the first time when they formed the band.

"He works at one end of the plant and I work at the other."

Interestingly, Rough Justice has been together twice as long as Top Dead Centre. When the band was formed, Bridges was 15 and Minnery was just 13. They added Bourget as their bass player a few months ago.

"Musically, I couldn't ask for a better person to work with than Billy," said Bridges, adding the pair shares songwriting duties.

"It's strange (how our sound has evolved)," he said.

"It's kind of rocky. It can be heavy; it's progressive or modern hard rock. We don't do any screaming or anything. We played Led Zeppelin and other hard stuff at first. It's just the way our musical interests are. It's been very organic."

Rough Justice has recorded three songs so far on a demo CD and will return to the studio this summer.

As far as learning the ropes from their more worldly fellow performers, Bridges said Rough Justice will be watching Top Dead Centre closely to see how the band prepares for the gig and how it handles the logistics of getting ready for the show.

"We've never tried to emulate or follow in another band's footsteps," he said.

That's exactly the type of attitude a new band needs in order to be successful, said Albon, who first joined a band when he was 13.

Asked what advice he has for the budding stars, he said: "Don't worry about us or any other band. Do your own things, write your songs and enjoy the music. Don't get all freaked out about what people are saying. Just stay on your path."

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Generation Landslide

Top Dead Centre and Rough Justice

Saturday, March 27,from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at theArmy, Navy and Air Force Club